Home MoneyBanks HSBC Apologizes for Compliance Failures

HSBC Apologizes for Compliance Failures

by Amwal Al Ghad English

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), the British bank accused of laundering money for Mexican drug lords, apologized to investors for compliance failings as it set aside $2 billion more to cover the costs of regulatory fines and lawsuits.

The lender made a $1.3 billion provision in the first half to compensate British clients wrongly sold payment-protection insurance and derivatives, HSBC said in a statement today as it posted an 8.3 percent drop in net income. It also made a $700 million provision for U.S. fines after a Senate committee found the bank gave terrorists, drug cartels and criminals access to the U.S. financial system, a sum Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver said may increase.

“Regulatory and compliance events in the first six months of the year overshadowed financial performance,” Chairman Douglas Flint said in a statement today. “HSBC has made mistakes in the past, and for them I am very sorry.”

HSBC, like its British competitors Barclays Plc (BARC) and Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY), has been ordered by regulators to compensate clients sold interest-rate swaps that cost them money and insurance on mortgages and credit cards they didn’t require.

The lender apologized on July 23 to U.S. Senators for anti- money after the bank was accused of giving terrorists, drug cartels and criminals access to the U.S. financial system.

HSBC is also one of more than a dozen named in probes into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, for which competitor Barclays was fined a record 290 million pounds ($456 million) last month.

Bloomberg

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